


The Importance of Timing

by Tiny_Dragongirl



Series: All is fair in love and Varlow [1]
Category: Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, F/M, First Meetings, Pre-Relationship, Sarcasm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 19:46:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11607708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiny_Dragongirl/pseuds/Tiny_Dragongirl
Summary: Ernst Volger gets picked up and never notices.





	The Importance of Timing

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to flannelgiraffe for the inspiration, the beta-ing and the summary!

’Can I help you?’

The sharp-looking woman steps out of her car and walks up to them, looking at their car with some interest. Ernst Volger can barely stifle an annoyed grunt.

Let’s gather all the facts.

It’s Sunday afternoon and everyone is enjoying the sun at somewhere nice, like a beach or a shady forest and definitely not at the middle of a highway, where the asphalt is almost soft in the heat and they are starting to get dizzy.

Everyone, except Ernst Volger and his _protégé_ , because they got stranded with their car on said highway half an hour ago.

Also, their car is full of fencing equipment, because they weren’t heading for a beach, no, they were heading for a fencing camp, going with 110 km/h when the engine suddenly stopped.

They’ve got a deadline to meet and they are stuck in the middle of nowhere and the first helping hand in sight belongs to a woman who is too well-dressed to be a car mechanic. Or maybe she is a car mechanic on her day off, let’s not be prejudiced.

Anyway, the facts say that Ernst Volger’s day might be a lost cause.

‘Thank you, but I don’t think there is much to do, unless you’ve got a car mechanic hidden in your trunk,’ he says. Most people usually mistake his comments as jokes, not what they actually are: a whip of sarcasm lashing out at the whole world.

‘No need to be so sarcastic, mister,’ she answers with a smile. ‘It’s just a car that broke down.’

‘Yes, and did it with the worst timing.’

‘I can’t imagine there can be a good time for this, but please, enlighten me.’

There is a glint in her eyes, one that makes Volger smirk.

‘Well, it could have happened when I have already dumped the boy at the camp,’ he motions to the front of the car with his hand, ‘then I would be worrying about the car, not about the car _and_ being late.’

‘Ah, the fencing camp?’ the woman asks with new interest in her voice. Volger quirks an eyebrow. ‘In case you have wondered why we came upon you in this deserted place, we might be just on the same route.’

‘A very logical explanation for an unsaid question, Ms…’

‘Doctor Nora Barlow.’

She holds out a hand and Volger shakes it. Dr Barlow has soft skin and a firm grip.

‘Ernst Volger. And the boy, who is mostly out of view and with his upper body into the engine, is my adopted son, Alek. He is quite keen on mechanics.’

‘And fencing,’ Nora Barlow adds with a smile, gently pulling her hand out of Volger’s grip. Oh. How inconvenient. He was so busy being annoyed by Alek’s obsession with car motors (if he could only actually repair it, then his hobby would make sense at least) that he forgot his manners. ‘Deryn, my student is a fencer, too. I am basically just her driver.’

‘That sounds very… attentive.’

Dr Barlow shrugs. ‘Her mother can’t afford a car and I had business near the camp, so it was convenient to give her a lift.’

‘Very convenient indeed,’ Volger nods. She doesn’t look like a benevolent person, but she keeps on offering help and nobody is as they seem, so… Let’s not be prejudiced.

‘It would be even more convenient if you took your equipment and bags, loaded them into my car, so I can drive everyone to the camp, where we could _dump_ the teenaged passengers, then look for someone who could actually repair your car. Does that sound convenient enough?’

‘Yes, it does,’ Volger replies, a bit stunned, because hey, she might just be Mother Teresa herself. Of course, why would she have been chatting with him for several minutes if her intention was to drive away and never look back all along?

It’s very logical to assume that Nora Barlow stopped to help, and she was determined to do so.

Oh, Ernst Volger might be a grumpy man, but he knows determination. It’s his middle name.

‘This is very kind of you, Dr Barlow,’ he adds. ‘I will pay for the fuel, naturally.’

‘No need for that, Mr Volger. It wouldn’t be a rescue mission if you paid for it.’

‘I didn’t know it was a rescue mission.’

Nora Barlow gives him a now-you-know smile, before pointing at her car. ‘Deryn and I are going to make some room in the trunk for your luggage. I am afraid I need to release my hidden car mechanic.’

Ernst Volger wonders if it’s considered rude to strangle the lady who just saved your day. (He is clearly not used to having his days saved. At least, not since a while.) She is not exactly kind, but she is helpful and she smiles a lot and she understands sarcasm… not only understands but she uses it! This trip to the camp is either going to be very trying or really challenging.

‘Alek! Stop fidgeting with the engine and collect your things,’ he shouts to his adopted son, before hurrying after Nora Barlow. (Which means he quickens his pace a bit. He never jogs, unless it’s a matter of life or death – he is a sober, grown-up man, after all.) ‘I am so going to ask you out for dinner,’ he states when he catches up to her.

Nora Barlow gives her a challenging smile, before answering: ‘See? Now I can imagine there can be a good time for a car to break down.’


End file.
